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From the cold north to the pleasant south and the radiant tropic, we welcome all of you to take a look at the development diary about the different climate themes in Cities: Skylines!

Cities: Skylines features three distinct terrain themes. These include north, sunny and tropic themes. Gameplay-wise the themes do not differ from each other, the effects are purely visual. This way the player can create their favorite maps using any of the themes available.

A theme includes its own set of trees (pine and conifer trees for north, broad-leaved trees for sunny and palm trees for the tropic theme – there are also some overlapping flora found in all of the themes), terrain colors, water texture and lighting conditions. For example, the sun is lower in the north theme and the grass is darker as well. The water is also a darker blue. In comparison the sunny theme has sun higher up in the sky and the lighting reflects more the Central and South European lighting conditions. The grass is greener and the water texture is somewhat more vibrant compared to the north theme. The tropic theme emulates tropical island atmosphere with sand texture that has a nice, slight glow to it when the sun hits it.

North theme
North theme represents the climate of northern countries such as those in Scandinavia. The sun has a bit colder feel to it accompanied with a toned down sky color, the grass is a bit darker as is the color of water. Pine and conifer trees make up the majority of flora but there are also a few broad-leaved trees and bushes to create variation.

Below are a few images of a small industrial town in the north.

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Sunny theme
Sunny theme represents central and south European climate. The sun is brighter and a bit warmer in the sunny theme with blue skies, the grass is brighter green giving a more vibrant feel and the color of water is lighter blue. Broad-leaved trees such as alder and beech make up the majority of the flora. Oak trees are included in the sunny tree roster as well as are few bush types.

Sunny metropolis divided by a river.

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Tropic theme
Tropic theme represents both the sunny California type climates as well as tropical island climates. The sun light is of warmer color and the sky color complements it nicely. The grass texture goes for a slightly different shade of green color compared to the sunny theme. The lush palm trees and bushes add to the grass color and create the iconic sunny beaches and tropical islands look.

Last but not least, a city stretching from the highway to the sandy beaches, just like in California.

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- Henkka also known as an artist, designer and level designer at Colossal Order
 
So we pick a theme for the overall look of the map before play and then a filter to tune it to how we like within game, at least that's how I read it.


if so i'm happy.

I asked the same and this is the response:

Maps that are made have a set theme to them which cannot be changed (for example you can't choose Map X that has the North theme and change that to Tropic theme before you start a game). You can still choose from a group of filters in the options menu to change certain aspects of the lighting condition and so forth. But changing the entire flora and grass color and so on is not possible (mid-game or on an already created map).
 
They all look great! I think I'll use the sunny theme when I design my first map.

What happened to the desert theme in some of the early dev footage? I was looking forward to creating a desert oasis.
 
Hello Devs!

After this "north" theme i wonder... Can you add "night theme" or at least "late afternoon" or maybe "stormy" i.e. really dark theme? Just a theme nothing more!


btw did i juts saw a proper antilaiasing or this is fake (4K to 1080) screens? :ninja:
 
I'm pretty sure this week was for the Modding Diary, wasn't it?!?! We lost an opportunity for what?!? To talk about a self explainable thing?? This "talking delay" was intentional, and don't pretend it wasn't!!!
Officially pissed!!! :angry:
 
So that filters can not be seperated? What I mean is that they affect every object in the same way. For example: The sunny theme makes the sky and plants look nice, but look the tree trunks for example, they are blue now as well.
I am not exactly on board with any of that themes yet.
It looks like the filters are built into the themes, with the "sunny" one having the much anger-inducing blue filter and the tropical one having the more orangey filter.
 
I like the North theme, even though I agree that it does not look terribly "northern", but I like the overall view of it.
ETA: I also think this theme is the most realistic looking one.

To me, the Sunny theme looks like the sun over Rio de Janeiro or any other tropical climate place. Believe me, I live within a tropical line.

The Tropical theme, again, in my opinion, looks sad.

I read this thread completely and now I am happy to see that some things are not going to be fixed and unmovable. I don't think it is the lighting that makes me dislike the Tropical theme, it is the general look of it. Maybe too flat?

I hope that I can have palm tress to add to the Sunny theme, because to me, that would be the ideal for a beach side place. Can we make beaches in the Sunny or North themes, BTW?

Thank you for having quick responses to this thread.
 
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Northern one looks by far the best, sunny and tropical both look pretty bleh. Gonna wait for some lighting/color mods before using the latter two.

I do love how we have the option to even choose themes/climates, something that was missing in previous citybuilders. Looking forward to seeing a larger variety in the future.
 
The themes change more than just lighting. There is a change to the ground textures, flora and lighting. The filters in the Options menu change the lighting and certain aspects of the colors but don't affect the actual map details such as terrain textures and tree models. But as a general idea creating an overhaul theme-wise is a lot of work.

It is possible in Unity to create a shader that will add a very nice looking snow effect to objects without having to alter them in any way (there are probably a bunch on the asset store even). Would this be something that we would be able to mod in, or is it delving a bit too far in to the engine?